Long-term changes in physical fitness components determining the motor performance of young people studying physiotherapy in 2001–2020

The aim of the study is to assess changes in basic somatic features and motor components of physical fitness of physiotherapy students in the years 2001–2020. Hypotheses were made about the lack of a secular trend in body height and weight, the deterioration of motor efficiency and the lack of conditioning of the examined changes by social factors. Every year, students of physiotherapy at Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (Poland) were examined in terms of height, weight, chest circumference, balance, speed, power, agility and endurance. The results were obtained from 1161 female students and 464 male students. There was weight gain in the group of women (R(2) = 0.41, p = 0.00314), deterioration of speed (for women R(2) = 0.579, p = 0.001; for men R(2) = 0.301, p = 0.0185) and deterioration of power (for women R(2) = 0.51, p = 0.001, p = 0.001; for men R(2) = 0.0432, p = 0.00303). The stability of the remaining features was also found, as well as the lack of their conditioning by social factors. Predictors of maintaining motor fitness were identified, i.e. male gender, fitness exam qualifying for studies and chest circumference. The creation of conditions and requirements encouraging greater care for the appropriate level of motor fitness of people undertaking physiotherapy studies seems justified. This observation may apply to other academia providing training for the profession of physiotherapist.